Road to be the Best Chess Player in the World!-Chapter 393: The Night Before the Tournament Begins! Sheva’s Crazy Stats!

"Okay, everyone, let’s gather in our room!" Bagas announced the night before the tournament began. "Let’s have one last meeting before the game day tomorrow!"

After having a nice rest day earlier, it was time for them all to get locked in for the main reason why they were here. Just like the usual, they would have a meeting beforehand, either in a restaurant where they would have dinner or in the boys’ room.

Fortunately, Dubai was a pretty international city, so it was not hard for them to find food that was suitable for their palate. So, after a nice and warm dinner, they all gathered in the hotel room that Sheva, Bagas, and Duta shared during their time here.

After their historical run in the Olympiad a few weeks ago, everyone came to Dubai with a high motivation here. They all wanted to continue their great momentum and grab something at the end of the tournament, hopefully a norm to upgrade their title.

Sheva himself didn’t really have a big target here. He just needed 23 ELO rating points more, so his target here was to grab that much or maybe even more, and he earned his GM title right after that. Yeah, he was just one step away from his GM title, and even though everything happened so fast, the boy didn’t mind getting it in this tournament.

However, it seemed that the system didn’t quite agree with his low target here.

[DING!]

[You have a new mission!]

’Um?! System?! Why do you give me a mission in time like this?’ Sheva clicked his tongue in annoyance. ’If you want to give me one, at least give it a week beforehand, so that I can prepare it first!’

Well, the system just stayed quiet, waiting for Sheva to pick up the mission. Knowing that he couldn’t refuse it, the boy just let out a deep sigh before accepting it silently.

[You have already made your name resounding throughout the entire chess community! It is time for you to prove that you are a real deal, not just a flesh in the pan!]

[Mission: Get into the top 3 of the tournament!]

[Reward: ???]

’... System, you really know how to make things difficult, don’t you?’ Sheva asked, the corner of his mouth twitching madly.

Yeah, even though he won the best individual player in the Olympiad, which was a huge achievement, by the way, that didn’t mean he could always win all the time. If anything, with his name surging like this, all the players would be wary of him, and his element of surprise would’ve been gone at this point. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Of course, Sheva was still confident that he could beat anyone else in a fair match. However, he was not arrogant enough to think that they would lie down helplessly, waiting to get killed by him. No, anything could happen in this tournament, and that was why getting into the top 3 was way more difficult than it sounded.

’Also, what the hell with this random reward, System? Are you serious?’ Sheva clicked his tongue in dissatisfaction. Seeing that he got another silent treatment from the system, the boy just sighed helplessly before muttering, ’Whatever. Let’s just check my stats first.’

[DING! The scan is successful!]

[Name: Adrian Sheva]

Attacking 86 (+4.3)

Defense 84 (+4.2)

Calculation 84 (+4.2)

Strategy 82 (+4.1)

Intuition 80 (+4)

Time management 85 (+4.25)

Title Slot: [Endgame Master] [National Resonance] [Empty]

[Note: With the effect of the title ’National Resonance’, the Host gets a 5 percent boost of all his stats, 1 for each player with the same nationality.]

’Holy fucking shit!’ Sheva widened his eyes, flabbergasted at what he saw here. ’My stats suddenly get this high?!’

His basic stats themselves didn’t improve that much after the Olympiad. Hell, the boy even felt like it was still the same from the last time he checked it, and this was quite normal. After all, it had only been two weeks since that time, and Sheva didn’t really study deeper to improve himself. No, with his busy schedule, the training he could get was only to maintain his form, not to improve himself further.

However, it seemed that he underestimated the effect of the title National Resonance. At first, Sheva thought that one percent per player was quite low. However, after looking at the direct improvement for it, he knew that even one percent could give him a quantitative leap.

’Just with five teammates on my side, my stats jump from a high-2500-rated player to those who are close to the 2700-rated club. If the tournament happens in Indonesia, where it is flooded by the local players...’

That thought was like a wet dream for the boy. If 5 percent could really give this much improvement, imagine playing in the Asian Championship zone 3.3 next year, where the country could send 10 to 15 players at the same time. Damn! At that time, even Magnus Carlsen himself would have had to kneel in front of him!

Then, Sheva also checked his competitors in this tournament. The highest-rated one here was Alexandr Predke, a Russian GM who was still in his prime, followed by Arjun Erigaisi, Amin Tabatabei, Praggnanandhaa, and about ten more GMs with an ELO rating of above 2600. If before, Sheva still thought that it might be hard to sneak into the top 3, this time, his confidence soared, and the thought of winning it all even surged inside his head.

’Yeah, with my rating now, it should be around Alexandr Predke, right? So close to the 2700-rated club? If I could get in my form quickly, maybe dominating the entire field will not be a problem at all!’

While Sheva was pondering a lot of things, the others were also engrossed in a deep chat.They talked a lot about their preparation, from their current training, the ideas that they had been thinking about, and even helping to fix the flaws in each other’s strategy.This was an academic exchange that all the chess players were yearning for, so everyone was quite lucky to have players who were willing to do this together.

As they were in the middle of a conversation, though, their phones suddenly vibrated simultaneously. This took everyone aback, and it was Bagas who reacted first here.

"The first day’s pairing is out!"